So does it look like the new patch is coming out this week?

tiff1967

tiff1967

New member
I am looking forward to the new patch for our Tricaster. What are some of the new features we can look for? One thing that was mentioned a bit back was Picture in Picture. It would be nice to use for a news shot and also a camera shot of the clock on the scoreboard. Is this possible and if it is where is it and can you size it.

Thanks :devil:
 
tiff1967 said:
I am looking forward to the new patch for our Tricaster. What are some of the new features we can look for? One thing that was mentioned a bit back was Picture in Picture. It would be nice to use for a news shot and also a camera shot of the clock on the scoreboard. Is this possible and if it is where is it and can you size it.

Thanks :devil:
Click to expand...

I would be very surprised if the Tricaster patch will allow a PIP for a clock that can be cropped, moved, and resized in a corner of the screen while you can still switch cameras and bring up graphics. Can you even do that on the VT? We've done ours with a switcher or an external DVE unit.
 
Gracious Tiff, you don’t have to wait for the new release for pips. They are in the release build, in the “Cmprs” group of 3D, all four corners. They are a little extreme in their video safe area allowance, but they should do for an over the shoulder, news desk shot. Don’t ask me why they are called CmprsQuad.

I think for a scoreboard clock you would prefer one of the group nearby called simply “Cmprs”. These will continue to look good smaller, while the others just leave more and more background room, as they get smaller. With these you will need to pay attention to video safe area, perhaps with a looser frame of the clock, because they are shrinking to the corner raster, not safe area.

Leave it to my young friend Jared to have taken it to beyond what you asked, but in answer to his: No crop. They will be a 4x3-ratio frame shape. Moved, yes, according to the Transitions design. Size, yes. Switch with them up, yes. Cuts only. With graphics, sure. Can be over graphics and/or with a title template overlay. You might need to build a custom template to fit with the pip. Without having gone for that exact thing, I have several in my jobs pac of title templates that could work, including a square window for the clock.

Nes Gurley
 
Cineman said:
Gracious Tiff, you don’t have to wait for the new release for pips. They are in the release build, in the “Cmprs” group of 3D, all four corners. They are a little extreme in their video safe area allowance, but they should do for an over the shoulder, news desk shot. Don’t ask me why they are called CmprsQuad.

I think for a scoreboard clock you would prefer one of the group nearby called simply “Cmprs”. These will continue to look good smaller, while the others just leave more and more background room, as they get smaller. With these you will need to pay attention to video safe area, perhaps with a looser frame of the clock, because they are shrinking to the corner raster, not safe area.

Leave it to my young friend Jared to have taken it to beyond what you asked, but in answer to his: No crop. They will be a 4x3-ratio frame shape. Moved, yes, according to the Transitions design. Size, yes. Switch with them up, yes. Cuts only. With graphics, sure. Can be over graphics and/or with a title template overlay. You might need to build a custom template to fit with the pip. Without having gone for that exact thing, I have several in my jobs pac of title templates that could work, including a square window for the clock.

Nes Gurley
Click to expand...
Having a nice clock inset on a limited budget has puzzled me for over 12 years! For a long time had a 1.5 M/E Echolab switcher and had a game camera pull double-duty when time was running out--the operator would quit covering the game and point at the scoreboard, looking in his return during a break and zooming out and tilting down to match the switcher's preset cutout (no DVE). Then, we put a Panasonic MX-50 downstream of everything just for the clock and it did the job - it has joystick movable PIP, compression, and crop--but it severely cut the resolution. Today we use a MX-70 as our main truck switcher (no sync issues!) which is vastly improved from the MX50 where you can actually store PIP settings, but you can't switch sources during a PIP without a glitch (8 sources but only 2 TBC's). I figured the VT and Tricaster would have the same problem, only able to handle 2 inputs at a time. We haven't had our Tricaster for basketball season yet so I haven't even thought far enough ahead to test any of this out. I hate to use one of the scarce 3 inputs for a clock which you would have to lock down and set in advance in the exact position. I thought about trying to do a webcam in IVGA with some kind of mask that you could key with the Tricaster, but any delay is unacceptable. Unless there is some software score bug solution, the only real answer I have found is to use an external DVE downstream to do nothing but punch the clock in and out (so forget streaming or saving to disk). When I set up a clock cam, I like to see the entire scoreboard on a screen next to the CG operator anyway--makes it easy to keep up with the score, and being able to use the DVE to take that full screen clock and shrink and position it where you need to is what I like! Just wishful thinking...

Jared
 
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Tarheel Cougar said:
We haven't had our Tricaster for basketball season yet so I haven't even thought far enough ahead to test any of this out. I hate to use one of the scarce 3 inputs for a clock which you would have to lock down and set in advance in the exact position.
Click to expand...
Well, if I were doing basketball live with the TriCaster, and wanted the scoreboard clock as Tiff suggested, I definitely would use a fourth camera locked down on it, and put it on the same switcher position as the end zone camera.

Nes Gurley
 
Or...

I've been fascinated to read some of the clock suggestions since I got my TriCaster two months ago, and after struggling with it for a few games, I finally came up with a different solution, which was to write a quick Visual Basic program that displays a score/down and distance/quarter/clock bar on the top of the screen with a magenta fill of the rest of the screen. I run this on a laptop, pull it in via iVGA, put VGA in 'Next' and key over it. This means only cuts during the game, but that's all we really use anyway. Here's a shot of it in action:

http://130.64.78.234/ramgen/archive2/jumbocast_20051015_foot.rm?start=01:36:58&end=01:37:20

Also, I know it means another PC (and another body to run it), and PCs are more expensive than cameras, but come on. It's cool.

Steve Clay
JumboCast
www.jumbocast.com

P.S. Yes, I know. I need to fiddle with the 'Contract' knob on the keyer...
 
Cineman said:
Well, if I were doing basketball live with the TriCaster, and wanted the scoreboard clock as Tiff suggested, I definitely would use a fourth camera locked down on it, and put it on the same switcher position as the end zone camera.

Nes Gurley
Click to expand...

Are you suggesting (for example) using a passive 4x1 switcher going into Tricaster input 3 to expand the number of inputs? What I would really like to see is functionality with the Tricaster like the VT4 where you can use BOTH the composite and s-video inputs for 6 total inputs, or possibly the ability to to toggle between each s-video and composite input, say with a hot key. Even if you could only see 3 at a time on the monitor.

Steve, that is very cool and what a great idea. Wish I knew visual basic! I'm sure everyone has a laptop lying around and that's a pretty useful tool Newtek could suggest as an add-on because I'm sure these boxes will be used for lots of sports. Now if only it could key with a mask or layers of transparency... :D

Jared
 
I think it looks awful good Steve. I was just visualizing what we would get with the pip, but can't imagine it looking better, except maybe the frame in a frame bit. I do like the actual game clock as being easier on the TV production, and matching what one would get if there, as to time.

The pip would limit us to cuts only as well, so no difference there.

Nes Gurley
 
Tarheel Cougar said:
Are you suggesting (for example) using a passive 4x1 switcher going into Tricaster input 3 to expand the number of inputs? What I would really like to see is functionality with the Tricaster like the VT4 where you can use BOTH the composite and s-video inputs for 6 total inputs, or possibly the ability to to toggle between each s-video and composite input, say with a hot key. Even if you could only see 3 at a time on the monitor.
Click to expand...
No. I’m talking about using another of the six camera inputs already on the TriCaster, and switching that in on the routing type switcher in the “Camera Setup” tab. That switches with about as little glitch delay as any routing switcher that I have used.

Of course you can’t do a production switch between, say, Camera 3 and new Camera 3. But you can switch it with either Camera 1 or 2 on the air. So it is what you say in the first sentence above, but without the need for any extra gear. And it is exactly what you say in the second two sentences, except for having the hot key.

Nes
 
I see what you mean, it is the same situation. I haven't tried switching between y/c and composite inputs during a production yet, but if its easy and glitch/crash free I'm all for less equipment! I was thinking external switcher because I didn't know how fast you could get to that tab to change the input, but either way you would have to go to another camera during the switch. Maybe that should be a feature request, possibly a 6-input skin or a fast way to change input assignments?
 
I didn't say glitch free. There is a glitch on the camera three monitor as you switch from current camera three to new camera three. But it is about as minimal and quick as any passive switcher (routing switcher) that I have ever used.

Pretty quick, mouse click tab, then button. But hey, I would do everything with keyboard shortcuts if I could. We basically switch the elaborate church service with keyboard shortcuts only on the VT, at Trinity Church. My latest "beat on NewTek for" is a keyboard shortcut to toggle between "Selection" and "List" play for the VCR. That is the place where I am having the most workflow issues after the stepping shortcuts are in place.

Nes (two hands on the keyboard for switching, please) Gurley
 
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